+2 and I'm sure a large number of other fans who back Tony Smith in what we are trying to achieve. Remember smashing Leeds home and away in the weekly rounds last year. Can't remember what took place in th play offs

The way people are banging on you'd think he'd picked 10 lads straight out of the u18s. All of the players on the field have significant Super League experience, there were a lot of very experienced players too. There were perhaps more players in there who hadn't played for a while than would be preferably, but the players who performed worst were senior players who have been on the field most of the season.

Blaming selection is actually taking the heat off the non-performers. What concerned me was the lack of brainpower (Bridge's attempted Hollywood pass in our own 10 for example) and the refusal to fight our way back into the game with solid rugby.

I guess - as has been said before - that if we win the CC or GF then all will be forgiven, but for the fans who pay good money I can imagine they feel more than a little short-changed.

I also question the wisdom of ''protecting the players''.
Someone like Briers (unless injured) thrives on playing week in week out, and last year when some were rested I seem to remember we lost when those rested came back.

Maybe TS is just looking towards next year - and it's clear we still need the likes of a Briers.

I got a Grupon voucher for the game and only paid £7.50 but given our performance I still feel short changed.

Just_Browny... I like how you think... I know a lot of Warrington fans and I've seen and heard a lot of them using the ridiculous excuse about the lack of experience throughout the Warrington team... and that being the only reason that Salford won the game on Friday.

Just for the record... The 17 players who turned out for Warrington on Friday had 1,163 appearances for Warrington between them.... Salford players only had 685 appearances for the Reds between them... So as for experience... that one is knocked on the head.

I just wish that Just_Browny could chat to a few of my Warrington fan mates and set them straight without any clear bias.

The Warrington team out there had more than enough experience..And Salford could only play what's in front of them..Thats about it really..

This selection 'controversy' is the biggest non story of the season. He admitted on GMR the other week that he was approaching the season differently than last and that this meant rotation. Hes trying to win 2 trophies and doesnt think we can if he plays his strongest team every week. Hes paid a lot of money to make those decisions.

The fact that he rested quite a few on Friday is not why we lost. The 17 selected had more than enough in them to win that game but too many were poor and, coupled with an excellent Salford performance, it was a perfect storm.

As for his comments being "unacceptable" (laughable) he owes no one an apology.

best post on this salford matter...anyone would think anderson or plange were in charge and wed just lost to gateshead in cup...get a grip

That is a very flawed stat though regarding experience. If you did it using stats of first grade appearances then I'm guessing it would be alot closer. I agree with the point you're trying to make though.

It was only in May,when you won the home game against Salford,when many Warrington supporters were on this forum telling how wonderful it was that your club could produce players from your Academy who could defeat a Super League side.There does appear to be a monumental shift in perspective.

An abiding memory for me will be Tony Smith enthusiastically congratulating the Salford players as they left the pitch.That,for me, showed the measure of the man,and has altered the earlier impression I had formed of him, from interviews I had seen.

Good luck to him and the club for the remainder of the season.

My problem with Tony was his team selection but not for the same reason as everybody else. The pack was this
Wood Higham Hill
Cooper Waterhouse
Harrison.

That is a very big and slow pack. You could argue that there are 5 prop forwards on the field. Against a Sean Long coached Salford who move the ball very well and run plenty of very good angles it was a disaster waiting to happen. The number of times Salford had an overlap because of the backs coming in to cover holes left by the forwards was unreal. We had a number of players who were not quite match fit and a few who couldn't hold on to the ball so struggled for posession. On top of that, Salford had a point to prove from the previous fixture when we beat them with our kids. All of this shouldn't detract from how well Salford played. They were clinical.

TBH there were some heart stopping moments on that day as well ! I thought Salford played some very good rugby on Friday ,in fact, at times it was like watching the Wire on a good day & if you can keep playing that way you should start to attract more support. Vievers & Long could well be a good partnership in the seasons ahead. Well done,good win !

There is another couple of points to this match from a coaching perspective I think.

There are players coming back now and the coaches need to decide which players can cope with the pressure of the semi final, possible final and the play off matches. In those matches we could well be behind in the match and have a team dominate us like Salford did.

Had we put out the strongest team to 'please the paying fans' we could have still got beat perhaps but or we could have blown Salford away as many predicted on the guessimate thread.

But had we blown them away with the strongest team, what would Tony have learned about the players? Maybe nothing that he doesnt already know. What would the players have learnt about themselves and each other? Thats more relevant perhaps.

Had the players on show worked out how to correct what was going wrong on the field themselves and had they found a solution to stop Salford playing so well then that would have been far more beneficial to all than us putting 60 on them.

As it is, we've learned that some players perhaps could stick at it under the pressure and make some plays to get the team back whereas others crumbled under the pressure and couldn't turn it round.

That is more important come the business end of the season I think.

In truth, that performance from Salford has been coming for some time, they are a great attacking team. It just took a typical Warrington performance to show it.

They will have a very strong second half of the season and with that team we were always going to get beat. I had Salford as strong favourites. Our players played as well as Salford let us play, they were outstanding.

Seemed a complete lack of appetite for it on Friday. Despite our big pack they gave us no go forward and Salford's smaller six owned the middle of the pitch. Crap discipline, no kicking game accompanied by poor handling resulted in us continually handing the ball back to Salford in our half. Worst Wire performance for some time but Salford were excellent and could have won by a lot more. The offload by Feka in a four man tackle summed up our lack of fight.